Protect the Rights of Consumers and Farmers - Stop The USDA's plan for NAIS

Are you familiar with the NAIS (National Animal Identification System)? If you aren't, you soon will be. If you currently own livestock, are planning to own livestock, or eat meat, dairy, or meat-by products, you will be affected by this measure.

In the midst of supposed "pandemics" such as the Swine Flu, plans to make this measure mandatory (currently it is a voluntary choice) have been in the works for some time (since 2005), and we are headed toward yet another bill soon to become a law which will strip citizens of their rights. According to Mary Zanoni, PhD., (Executive Director of Farm for Life) this plan, headed up by Secretary of State Tom Vilsack who has been working with Big Agribusiness giants such as Monsanto, National Pork Producers, and Cargill Meats will "drive small producers out of the market, will make people abandon raising animals for their own food, will invade Americans’ personal privacy to a degree never before tolerated, will violate the religious freedom of Americans whose beliefs make it impossible for them to comply, and will erase the last vestiges of animal welfare from the production of animal foods".

All the details of this costly, imposing, and limiting system can be read at Poultry Press. Basically, if you own even one animal - horse, cow, pig, sheep, chicken, or any type of livestock, you must adhere to a very strict plan to manage the animal by registering it with the USDA and tracking it according to their requirements including the following:

• each animal is assigned a 15-digit number in the form of a tag or microchip
• could include collecting DNA from each individual animal
• owner will be required to report the following for each animal: date of birth, each time animal enters or exits the property, application of every animal's I.D. tag, each time tags are lost or replaced, when animals die or go missing(must be reported within 24 hours)

Third "parties" such as veterinarians are required identify animals they treat or "sight" which are not tagged and report them to the USDA. This applies whether you are raising the animals for food to sell or only for your own self and family. There will be no exceptions. If you do not comply, the USDA will exercise "enforcement" against you (St., p. 7; Plan, p. 17).

The costs associated with implementating NAIS protocols are incidental for CAFOs and smaller factory farms. These facilities currently use computer technology for systems monitoring purposes. Smaller farms will be hardest hit as each individual animal will be required to have a tag. It is estimated that tracking one animal through a small farming environment will be equal to the cost of monitoring a thousand animals on the premises of a factory farm. This is because in the factory environment, all animals moving through a chain of production at once can be issued a single number - whereas on a smaller farm, each animal must be counted as one and issued a separate number entirely.

Does this feel a bit like Nazi Germany? It should!

This system is supposed to keep animal disease under control, but in reality, this is just another government program that will cost taxpayers more money, erode personal rights, and essentially wipe small, sustainable farmers and individual farmers off the map. Such impositions upon small business owners and individual citizens will prove too costly and difficult to maintain, and the USDA is counting on this as a way to "eliminate disease and illness" from the world of farming and agriculture. Of course, the real enemies in all of this are the factory farms working hand in hand with the government and USDA, who refuse to make mandatory passing necessary legislation about raising animals in sanitary and sustainable conditions.

When innoculatory vaccinations were issued in 1976, people paid the price after various individuals became paralyzed and experienced other permanent side-effects. This is yet one more thinly-veiled execution of "controlling" disease and is another method of supporting Big Ag and Big Pharma. These entities don't really intend to keep citizens from getting sick, and if you believe that, you are just being deceived. Where are the discussions about prevention? You won't hear them from the mainstream news media or the CDC because too much power and money is at stake. If you believe these events to be the big hoaxes they are, please visit Agriculture Society and read our open letter to the President and Congress about the necessity for prevention and real nutrition for proper maintenance of both our health care systems and our health.

Make no mistake, these new regulations will move toward effectively removing all sustainable and small farming operations, and seek to take away our rights to healthy, safe food.

Please, consumers, farmers, and anyone who cares about health and agriculture: PLEASE, AS urges you to take action and raise your voice about this important issue - the future of our ability to procure healthy food for ourselves and our families is at serious stake!

To sign a petition against this measure, visit Petition2Congress.

For more information about this system, visit the Organic Consumer's Association .

For more information about taking action on this critical issue, visit Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund.

For more information, visit Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance.

To see what the USDA is planning for this measure, visit the USDA site.